Sydney has just announced a suburb of 10,000 people with a train station to be delivered. Why is it the case Transport Planning just does not work at all in Victoria? Is it because we have terrible resources in Victoria or does politics just get in the way or is it both? <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this month, the state government also approved<\/a> plans for a new suburb, Beveridge North West, which will see a further 47,000 residents move in by 2052. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How could you begin to approve this suburban without a rail line even a spur line to the main area of the suburb as planning has been so poor the development of the suburbs on the northern fringe of Melbourne are away from rail lines. We need to take the rail lines to the suburbs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n But Mitchell Shire Mayor, John Dougall, is scathing of the level of infrastructure investment he sees from the state government to support his growing community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We\u2019re still waiting for the basics,” he told a forum of Outer Melbourne Councils in South Morang.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Council data shows just 1.2 per cent of people who live in Beveridge catch public transport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “And it\u2019s not because they don\u2019t want to, it\u2019s because they can’t,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He urged the state government to fund a train station at Beveridge, where the Seymour Vline train passes land that is “shovel-ready” for the station. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The trains on the line are already at capcity and we need electrification to Wallan as a basic design with 20 minute services from Wallan to the city being able to run via either Essendon or Upfield.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n “This is our chance to get it right,” he said, urging the state government to build the station now, before more residents move in. <\/p>\n\n\n “Beveridge station is a test: deliver it now, not in 10 to 15 years,” he said.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Scott Reid is one of the 98.8 per cent of Beveridge residents who don\u2019t regularly use public transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I try to avoid PT like the plague just because I\u2019ve heard far too many stories about services being cancelled,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the daily commute to work in Clifton Hill takes about 40 minutes if there\u2019s no traffic, but it can take up to an hour and a half, if the Hume Freeway is busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We\u2019re funnelling people into a car park,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He recently went to pick up the kids from school, but got stuck in traffic at the freeway overpass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “It took me half an hour to go 2 kilometres,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I was fuming. I could walk faster.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the state government should fund a train station in Beveridge, to give people options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “It\u2019s well and truly overdue, having a decent method for myself and my kids to get in and out of the city, in and out of Wallan, proper infrastructure in place,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n Congested roads and a lack of reliable public transport options were common themes of the meeting of Outer Melbourne Councils in South Morang, in Melbourne\u2019s outer north. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mayor of the Yarra Ranges Shire, in the outer east, Jim Childs, called on the government to build an extra train station between Mooroolbark and Lilydale, where a new development at Kinley will create an extra 3,000 homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That would mean duplicating the tracks between the two existing stations, which were first built in the 1890s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “We\u2019ve got to get this infrastructure correct,” Cr Childs said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “The infrastructure is not there to get all the cars off the roads.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the city\u2019s west, Melton is the fastest-growing local government area in Australia<\/a>, with an annual growth rate of 6.5 per cent, well above the state average of 1.9 per cent.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The council\u2019s manager of city strategy, Travis Conway, said access and transport is the number one issue people raise with the council.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “We have a population growing day by day, and using largely one road \u2013 the Western Highway,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some clown from the liberals wants to build an 8 lane freeway into Melbourne rather then improve pub;lic transport so anyone wondering why they are never elected should read this.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n That was illustrated this week in Thornhill Park, where a road upgrade means the only local road connecting the community to high schools and the train station will be shut until December \u2013 forcing locals onto the freeway for every school drop-off and pick-up, adding up to 45 minutes each way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Calls to improve outer suburban public transport<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Population boom puts pressure on transport<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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